Members of FAIR were shocked to see an article in yesterday’s Sunday Life proclaiming that representatives of the group would be entering the West Bank and Gaza strip to meet with the PLO in Israel. This libellous claim has endangered those representatives who will be travelling and we categorically deny any willingness or plans to meet with terrorists. The aim of the visit is to meet other innocent victims of terrorism in their own environment, hear their stories and learn from their situations. FAIR will also be drawing on the experiences of the Victim’s Sector in Israel and applying lessons learned to our own situation here in Northern Ireland.

FAIR is well-known for it’s stand against all forms of terrorism, and the perpetrators of violence. It’s view of the PLO is the same as it’s view on the IRA. The PLO is a terrorist organisation whose aims are not dissimilar to the IRA, namely the destruction of a state and anyone who stands in the way of it’s objectives. The PLO also represents a particularly virulent form of terrorism, breeding fanaticism within the family unit and channelling this hatred against Israeli citizens. Since it’s inception, no-one has played the terrorist as well as Yasser Arafat – expelled from Jordan and Lebanon, he and his uncontrollable cadre of terrorist psychopaths have destroyed many lives – both Palestinian and Israeli.

There are also strong indications that the murderous IRA have had dealings with the PLO. On the 3rd of March 2002, a sniper in the town of Ofra killed 10 Israeli soldiers and civilians in a 25-minute period of shooting. He fired a total of 25 rounds, and his kill rate bore all the hallmarks of an expert marksman, possibly trained by 1 of 5 top IRA (Irish Republican Army) marksmen. What was more ominous was the style employed by the attacker. Hiding in trees overlooking an army checkpoint, the sniper used IRA tactics of ambushment, and also left his bolt-action rifle at the scene as he fled. Mossad immediately launched an investigation into the incident, contacting British Security Services who immediately checked to see which IRA men were travelling abroad at that time. No-one doubted that this was an IRA volunteer or IRA-trained sniper—the IRA has had longstanding links with the PLO, and at least one member of the IRA’s army council is known to be an Arabic speaker.

Then in the Jenin incursion of 2002, a British explosives expert working with the Red Cross identified hundreds of explosive devices found there and noted that “the pipe bombs I found in Jenin are exact replicas of ones I found in Northern Ireland”. These bombs were used against the Israeli forces, and are typical of the types employed by the IRA to target civilians and military personnel. The networks of information and skills transfer in the terrorist world has obviously had a terrible impact on Israel and Northern Ireland alike.

It is an overarching principle that FAIR, an organisation dealing with innocent victims and their families, does not meet with active and unrepentant perpetrators of violence. This clearly undermines our position as representatives of those who have suffered in the past 30 years. We would not give credence to the kafeeyah-wearing and pistol-toting Arafat by meeting with his henchmen, the PLO, but will instead be meeting with the people he has persecuted, whose lives he has destroyed, and whose country he wishes to see burning.